China Mainstream to Invest $300 Million in 10 Movies

June 19 (Bloomberg) -- A Chinese film-finance group plans
to invest $300 million in 10 English-language films, starting
with “Ming: The Annihilator,” based on a character from
Spider-Man creator Stan Lee.

National Film Capital, a government-backed entertainment
company, is developing projects that will appeal to
international audiences, the Beijing-based company said
yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The company will also invest
in the Chinese theater business, to become a major player in
both the U.S. and in China.

The company’s Beverly Hills, California-based unit, China
Mainstream Media National Film Capital, will produce and
distribute English-language pictures with major Hollywood
studios and independent moviemakers, according to the statement.
The parent company is run by Yang Bu Ting, former chairman of
the government-run China Film Group, the country’s largest
producer and distributor.

“The Chinese film industry needs Hollywood expertise and
Hollywood needs the Chinese market,” Liu Yuan, co-chairman and
president of China Mainstream, said in the statement. “We are
the perfect one-stop China turn-key partner for Hollywood.”

The company plans to develop a 2,000-screen cinema presence
in China, through building locations, buying out owners or
forming partnerships with existing operators.

China Mainstream said in February that it planned to create
a film fund to focus on co-productions involving U.S. producers
and writers. Yang said in a March interview that National Film’s
U.S. outpost was looking to combine American talent with stories
that have a strong Chinese element.

U.S. Expansion

A number of other Chinese film companies are expanding into
U.S. entertainment markets.

DMG Entertainment, based in Beijing, is producing “Iron
Man 3” with Burbank, California-based Walt Disney Co. The
chairman of Beijing-based Bona Film Group Ltd., Yu Dong, said in
April that his company was in talks with major studios,
including News Corp.’s Fox and Viacom Inc.’s Paramount, about
co-productions.

Ticket sales in China rose about 30 percent to $2 billion
last year, making it the biggest market after the U.S. and
Japan, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.
By comparison, worldwide box-office revenue rose 3.2 percent.

The MPAA said that China surpassed Japan for second place
in the first quarter on a 12-month basis.